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Summary

Everyone who meets new people should have a business card.

Good business card habits will help you to build your personal network quicker.

Every card you receive belongs in your address book and deserves a follow up email.

Success tip: Using business cards effectively

17 July 2011

A business card is an essential tool when you meet new people for the first time. In some cultures you are effectively “a nobody” if you do not have a business card.

A business card may seem old-fashioned in this era of modern technology but it represents the fastest and most reliable way of giving someone basic contact information about yourself. At the same time your card will say something about the kind of person you are or the organisation you represent.

Other people's business cards

When you meet someone, it is a key priority to obtain their business card, normally in exchange for your own. Without a card you will find it virtually impossible to remember that person.

When you collect someone else's business card, do not put their card into the same pocket in which you keep your own cards. It is very embarrassing if you find yourself giving a third party's business card to a new acquaintance instead of your own card; shuffling through a handful of cards trying to find your own amongst the cards that you have received slows you down and looks ridiculous. Instead follow a rigorous policy of always carrying your own cards in the same place (I use the outer breast pocket of my jacket) while putting cards received consistently into a different place (I use my shirt breast pocket).

As soon as you can decently do so (but not in front of the individual) you should annotate the back of their card with basic information such as when and where you met them and any information about them that you gained during your conversation. Otherwise it is very frustrating to see three years later that you have John Smith from XYZ plc in your address book, but you have no idea who he is or where you ever let them!

The CardScan device is a scanner designed for the sole purpose of scanning business cards. After scanning the card, it extracts the text from the image and in most cases it recognises telephone numbers, mobile numbers, email addresses etc.

After you have checked the scanning and made any corrections needed, you can export the data to your main address book.

The data from each business card you collect belongings in your address book. At one time many people carried a paper personal organiser; as you added more people to the address pages, you found yourself adding more pages and gradually the organiser became heavy and unwieldy. With modern technology your smart phone or electronic organiser gains no weight as you add people to it.

If you have a secretary, you can delegate the task of typing business cards into your address book to your secretary. Without a secretary, unless you meet new people very rarely, typing business cards into your address book becomes unbelievably tedious. Accordingly in late 2009 when I was about to retire from PricewaterhouseCoopers and would no longer have a secretary, I purchased a CardScan device and have been delighted with it ever since.

Once you have entered the new business card into your address book, I recommend sending that individual an email to say how much you enjoyed meeting them as well as anything else that came out of your conversation. Modern technology really does make it much easier to keep in touch and such communication is an integral part of building your network.

If the person is on LinkedIn, Facebook or some other social networking site that you use, send them a connection request.

Your own business cards

If you work for a company, you will normally have no control over the appearance or content of your business card. Your responsibility is to ensure that you have your business card with you at all times except when it is impossible. (I have not found a way of going swimming with my business cards!) An easy solution for men is to store some business cards in the outer breast pocket of every jacket that they wear.

I never cease to be amazed by the number of people who I meet who have business cards but have forgotten to carry them when attending an event.

The simple goal with your business cards is to ensure that they end up in the hands of relevant other people; a business card only works for you when it is in the possession of someone else.

If you are independent you have complete control over the design and content of your business card. I have the following suggestions:

Legibility is everything. I am amazed by the number of people who give me a business card which is almost impossible to read with peculiar scripts and small sizes being used for essential data.

The design decisions you make reveal much about your personality. I recommend keeping the card looking very professional and somewhat understated. In that regard while some people have their photograph on their business card, it is extremely rare with professionals or senior business people so I advise against it.

The material should be good quality white card with no lamination. It is immensely frustrating trying to write on a laminated card when and where you met someone and you should give others the courtesy of handing them a card that is capable of being written on.

Use the back of the card, but use it sparingly. All of the contact information is better placed on the front so that it cannot be missed while the back of the card is the place for a mission statement or equivalent.

A business card should always have an address. This can be a difficult decision in some cases where one does not have an office. After I retired I was temporising whether to include my residential address. What convinced me was being handed a card by a former chairman of the Board of Inland Revenue which contained his personal address; if he included his personal address on his card, so could I. Without an address, a business card looks a little "suspicious" as if the individual is trying to hide something.

While your card should look professional, you should minimise the unit cost both by avoiding expensive printing (such as raised lettering) and by having a large number printed at one time. The key point is that you never want to find yourself being reluctant to give someone your card because of the money that you spent having that card printed.

Obviously you do not need to be in business to have a business card. If you want people who you meet to remember you and to be able to contact you again, you need to ensure that you give them a business card.

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